Pin-bridge for string instruments



No. 609,&82.

Patonted Aug. 30, !898. G. A. FULLERTON.

PIN BRIDGE FOR STRING INSTRUMENTS.

(Application fllad Jm. 10, 1808.)

(No Model.)

/ f /VV v/ V r UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

GEORGE ARTIIUR FULLERT ON, OF BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, ASSIGNOR TO JAMES E. MAYNADIER, TRUSTEE, OF TAUNTON, MASSACHUSETTS.

PIN-BRIDGE FOR STRING INSTRUMENTS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 609,882, dated August 30, 1898.

Application filed January 10, 1898. Serial No. {366,162. (No model.)

TO all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, GEORGE ARTHUR FUL- LERTON, of Boston, in the county of Suifolk and State of Massachusetts, have invented a new and useful Pin-Bridge for String Instruments, of which the following is a specification, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, in which Figure lis a plan of a portion of a cithern, showing my pin-bridge in place. Fig 2 is a section on line 2 2 of Fig. 1.

My invention is a new bridge for string instruments; and it consists in pins each provided nearits upper end with a shoulder, over which a string passes, while the portion of the pin above the shoulder serves as a guide for the string, each of these pins passing through a bridge and the sounding-board and into the pin-block of the instrument.

In the drawings, A is the bridge; B, the sounding-board; D, the pin-block for the tuning-pins E, and F the bridge-pins, each with a shoulder f. Each string Gr extends from its tuning-pin E over the shoulder f of its bridgepin F, that shoulder f forming with the bridge A my new pin-bridge. For the best results the shoulder f should be fiush with the upper edge of the bridge A, and that part of the bridge-pin F which is above the soundingboard B should fit in a bore through bridge A, for the function of bridge A is to prevent vibration of the upper part of the bridge-pin F. The function of the shoulder f is to support the string G, and the function of that part of the pin immediately above shoulder fis to stay the string; but obviously one or more ordinary stay-pins may be used between bridgepin F and tuning-pin E, although one advantage of my new pin-bridge is that it efiectually prevents aftertones due to the vibration of that part of the string between the bridge and the tuning-pin if the tnning-pin E be not too far from bridge A; but the main advantage of my new pin-bridge is that each string is supported and stayed in the most perfect manner and that the quality of tone is much in proved. In practice I bore the bridges A for the pins F and then force each pin through the sounding-board B and well into the pin-block D, and while the shoulder f of pins F need not be against bridge A, yet for the best results I prefer to slightly embed shoulders f in the upper surface of bridge A, and thereby the shoulder on each pin acts to clamp the bridge A and sounding-board B against pinblock D, which not only improves the construction of the instrument, but also improves the tone and practically does away with the need of stay-pins between the bridge-pins F and tuning-pins E.

lVhat I claim as my invention is-- In a string instrument the pin-bridge above described made up of shouldered pins and a bridge, the pins extending through the bridge and sounding-board and into the pin-block, the shoulders of the pins supporting the strings and the heads of the pins staying the strings, all substantially as set forth.

GEORGE ARTIIUR FULLERTON.

Witnesses: y

JOHN R. Snow, H. P. GUILLO. 

